CHAPTER 5 — Project Genesis
CHAPTER 5 — Project Genesis
The words meant nothing to me.
But the moment Dr. Reynolds saw the tag...
Her face turned white.
She looked at Detective Bennett.
"Where did you say this came from?"
"Richard Hayes's car."
Dr. Reynolds slowly sat down.
"I've heard that name before."
Every eye in the room turned toward her.
"Years ago."
"When I was still a resident."
"There were rumors about a classified biomedical research project."
She hesitated.
"It was called Project Genesis."
Detective Bennett leaned forward.
"What kind of project?"
"No one knew for certain."
"Officially, it didn't exist."
"But several researchers disappeared after asking questions."
Silence settled over the room.
Dr. Carter frowned.
"Are you saying this has something to do with Emily?"
"I don't know."
"But if Richard kept a key labeled Project Genesis for fifteen years..."
"...that's not a coincidence."
The following morning, Detective Bennett returned with a search warrant.
The key matched a private storage facility on the outskirts of town.
A reinforced underground vault.
Registered under a shell company.
The police insisted I stay behind.
I couldn't.
"If this has anything to do with my daughter..."
"I'm coming."
Two hours later, we stood before a thick steel door.
The key slid into the lock effortlessly.
With a heavy metallic click...
The vault opened.
Dust filled the air.
Inside were rows of filing cabinets.
Old computers.
Boxes stacked from floor to ceiling.
Everything had been abandoned in a hurry.
One detective opened the nearest cabinet.
Patient files.
Hundreds of them.
Children.
Every folder contained photographs.
Medical scans.
Blood reports.
Dates stretching back nearly twenty years.
Then Detective Bennett stopped.
She slowly pulled out one file.
Across the front, written in thick black letters, were two words:
EMILY HAYES
My heart nearly stopped.
She opened it carefully.
The first page wasn't a medical report.
It was a birth certificate.
Except...
The mother's name was mine.
But under Father, it didn't say Richard Hayes.
It listed someone I had never heard of.
Daniel Mercer.
"I don't understand," I whispered.
"There has to be a mistake."
Detective Bennett turned the page.
There were laboratory reports.
DNA charts.
Ultrasound images.
Consent forms.
Every document carried one sentence across the top.
PROJECT GENESIS — CONFIDENTIAL
Then Dr. Carter found the final page.
His hands began to shake.
He looked at me with genuine horror.
"Mrs. Hayes..."
"I'm so sorry."
"What is it?"
He slowly handed me the document.
It was signed by Richard.
Dated two days after Emily's birth.
The title read:
Authorization for Experimental Biological Implantation.
And beside the signature...
May you like
Was a handwritten note.
"The mother must never know."
